Depression affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is associated with poor health, including an increased risk of mortality. Treatments include medication and psychotherapy, but expense and efficacy are concerns. Resistance exercise training, which is designed to increase strength, muscle mass, endurance, and power, may be a less costly alternative, although the magnitude of its effects are unclear.
Researchers from Ireland, Sweden, and the US systematically searched the literature for clinical trials where patients were randomized to resistance training or inactivity. They aggregated results from 33 studies with 1,877 men and women, some with depression and some not.
The authors found that resistance training was associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms regardless of the participant’s baseline mental health, the frequency of weight training, or the number of repetitions. Mental health impacts were similar among women and men, and younger and older lifters. More strength gained was not associated with less depression.
In speaking with the study’s lead author Brett Gordon, the New York Times pointed out
People expect the workouts to make them feel more cheerful, and they do. (It’s impossible to blind people about whether they are lifting weights or not…So some of the psychological benefits might be the result of a biological placebo effect, which nonetheless produces real benefits.)
Gordon, B. R., McDowell, C. P., Hallgren, M., Meyer, J. D., Lyons, M., & Herring, M. P. (2018). Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms: Meta-analysis and Meta-regression Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA psychiatry, 75(6), 566-576.
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